Jinyang Liang

Institut national de la recherche scientifique [INRS]

Domaine : techniques, mesures et systèmes

Programme Chercheurs-boursiers - Junior 1

Concours 2019-2020

Abstract

Stroke and brain cancer, as two pressing brain diseases, are currently impacting more than 0.7 million Canadians. The annual cost to treat these diseases is more than 3.5 billion dollars. Due to their complex symptoms, there currently lacks highly effective and accurate treatments for both diseases, leaving a heavy physical and financial burden to Canadian society.

The proposed interdisciplinary program aims to advance this field in a collaborative effort. In the proposed two projects, two novel optical brain imaging systems, built upon the world's fastest camera, will be applied to monitor metabolic activities in the brain in wide fields of view and at high speeds. The results will improve our understanding of the fundamental biophysical mechanisms that govern the origin and progress of these diseases. Moreover, these imaging systems will be directly further adapted to two clinical applications, including monitoring the metabolic responses in therapy and recovery of stroke as well as guiding boundary assessment and resection of brain cancer during surgery.

The proposed program exerts compelling scientific merits and socio-economic impacts. First, the proposed systems will represent unique engineering achievements in biophotonics. The results of the proposed new therapies in animal and human experiments will provide guidance for ensuing translational research, holding promise for improving the living standard and life quality of Canadians. Moreover, this program will allow attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel for comprehensive training. Finally, providing unique opportunities to directly collaborate with eight experts in diverse fields and two industrial partners, the proposed program will undoubtedly accelerate my career establishment.